The special counsel investigation into Donald Trump secured a search warrant of the former president’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, according to a newly unsealed court filing.

  • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    The search was so secret that Twitter was barred from telling Trump the search warrant had been obtained for his account, and Twitter was fined $350,000 because it delayed producing the records sought under the search warrant.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Are we going to see more bullshit “Twitter Files” about how the evil government dared to exercise a legal search warrant?

    • Doug Holland@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, THAT’S what CNN should’ve said in the headline. Investigations into Trump are so ordinary now they’re barely news, but Twitter ignoring the law and the search warrant — that ought to be big news.

      There are still serious news sites and government agencies using Twitter, something that’s been feeling more and more problematic to me. It would be nice if today’s news started a groundswell, or at least a conversation about that. Twitter has made itself into a forum for nutters, and now this? To anyone who’s still on Twitter, I would ask — Why?

    • rastilin@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yes, that’s generally how electronic record searches go. I don’t get why “secret” is bolded, since any of us would be getting the exact same treatment if there was a warrant for our own accounts. This at least is equitable in that it’s equally unfair under the laws that these very same people had no problem with when they were in power.

    • athos77@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      sought the warrant in January 2023.

      So after Musk took over. I have no doubt Musk tried to obstruct as much as possible.

    • Alto@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Still not a fan of secret subpoenas/warrants/whatever, but fuck that’s funny

      • Falmarri@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This is different from a FISA warrant I think. It’s not that it was “secret”, in that it won’t ever be public. Just that they didn’t tell trump first, which as far as I know is pretty standard

        • Alto@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I’m aware. I’m not a fan of them not being able to tell their users when this stuff happens.

          Gotta wait til after they hand it over? Sure. But they should be legally required to inform the user after the fact.

          • RangerAndTheCat@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            If you’re not a fan look into services that have a “canary in the coal mine” or “warranty canary”, the best example of this being at work I can remember would be lavabit or true crypt (RIP). Take what I say with more than a grain of salt… just an old privacy advocate that may dive to deep sometimes haha adjusts tinfoil hat

            • Alto@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Unfortunately a lot of the FISA warrants completely gut organization’s ability to actually fail to renew a warrant canary

        • A statute requires notice of the existence and scope of the warrant. Here, it sounds like the court issued a discretionary protective order, further limiting the contents of Twitters notice letter to trump.

    • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I wish we saw more stuff like this with corps being slapped around even a little bit where it hurts (their bank account) when they drag their feet or don’t comply.